MFP Copier Blog

Today was a day like another other day at the Jersey Shore, the Sun still rose in the East, the ocean still sent it's countless waves ashore and I was off to work.  Dagnabit, it was such a beautiful day for October in New Jersey!

I had one early appointment at 9AM for that wide format color scanner I spoke about the other day.  Funny, how thrifty some clients can be.  The first question was centered around, "can I rent a wide format color scanners for a few months?", the second, "do you have any off lease wide format color scanners?", and "do you have anything used?"  You know my answer, right?  No, no and no, however I did explain to the client why none of those scenario's would work for them.  Did I take an order, well......no, but it wasn't because I didn't close enough, the client wanted to get with his accountant and find out what lease is better for them.  I'm hoping to have this in my pocket this week.

BTW, if you're wondering where I get my pricing for wide format scanners, take a trip to my peeps over at National Azon. They have been awesome!

Speaking of this week, I'm down to the last five selling days of the week and I got crap!  So much for the past two months, when almost every opportunity turned into an order. I've lost three already this month and I'm thinking I'm losing another one tomorrow.  So, it goes.....

With twenty-five percent of the month left, I turned my attention to trying to wrap up a few orders before the month closed.  I was able to schedule 3 appointments today with existing accounts, and worked on researching and finalizing a few orders that I can bring to fruition. 

At this point, I don't have anything solid, meaning I have an appointment or a call to write an order.  I did get notification on a large order that the down payment check of $35K did go in the mail today.  Thus, I'm hoping I'll have that before the end of this week.

I have two appointments tomorrow, did not want to schedule then like that, but it is the last week of the month and I need to make things happen. 

Opportunities today, was another zero, but I'll be back on the phone tomorrow and Wednesday and I'm sure that will change.  That's one thing that I find awesome about sales, it's that as long you keep prospecting, you never know what tomorrow will bring.  Things seem to work out that way, even after 36 years, stuff just happens!

When I finish up this blog, I'll be posting up some press releases to this site, and if it's not too late, I'm going to prepare my constant contact monthly email that I will send to 45 clients (yah, yah, I know I need to get that number up).

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $135K

-=Good Selling=-

Memories, oh the memories of what was hot ten years ago this week.  My favorite on this list is "sales toughness".  There is nothing new in sales, what's new is really old with just a slight spin on it for todays market place.  Enjoy the threads from ten years ago!

Ricoh Selling 3260/5560 to Toshiba

The year was 1988 and these were my two best friends as a copier sales rep...

The first copier dealership I worked for in 1988, had the largest advertisement in the copier section of the Yellow Pages. Dealer principals and business owners didn't think twice as the Yellow Pages was THE SPOT where you advertised to get targeted calls from prospects. Sure it was expensive, but it didn’t matter. Consumers trusted the Yellow Pages for the information they needed. Business owners paid for what worked.

The Yellow Pages were effective. Well into the early 1990's, inside my copier dealership our advertising budgets were all directed to the Yellow Pages. To grow our business this is where you had to be. People plain and simple trusted the big yellow book. No questions asked!

It wasn't uncommon to spend upwards of $90,000 per year to advertise inside the Yellow Pages.

DEATH OF THE YELLOW PAGES

By the mid 1990's the internet became mainstream and revolutionized the business world

Business models failed miserably as consumers moved online. Search engines and other online media broke traditional media.

Then the giants started to fall...

• Yellow Pages publisher, R.H. Donnelley filed for bankruptcy (May 2009).
• Newspaper publisher Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy (Dec 2008).

GOOGLE KILLED THE YELLOW PAGES

Business changed forever when consumers moved online. As consumers began trusting Google and other online media for local products and services, they stopped looking at the Yellow Pages as these now became stands for computer monitors. When consumers stopped consulting traditional media, local businesses stopped advertising there. As a result this began to happen...

CH, CHA, CHANGES BEGAN TO HAPPEN

Business owners and copier dealer principals had to adapt. The migration path was the internet. Everyone soon realized you needed two essential things to be successful operating a business in a networked business world, a website and online marketing.

Priority number one, a great website. As prospects and your clients went online to search it was absolutely essential to have web presence. It became critical to your success to have a solid website. Your business credibility became mission critical as you met your prospects and clients online to answer their questions about your products and services. Your website couldn't suck so you allocated dollars to insure this didn't happen.

Priority number two, good online marketing. As business owners you allocated even more dollars to promote your business online. You forgot about the “if you build it they will come” mindset.A $20,000 website with the latest tricked-out technology is useless if nobody knows you’re there, it’s a wasted effort.

THE 64 MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

As business owners... What are you doing to insure your sales reps have great websites and good online marketing?

I ask you to think about this one for a second. Are you able to answer it?

It is 2016 and your sales reps websites are their LinkedIn profiles. Online marketing is how they use relevant, educational content to draw in prospects and yes, your clients in wanting to know more. It is their social proof, their social visibility and yes their credibility as the represent your company.

Business owners today spend enormous amounts of money to position themselves online in a credible fashion. They spend even more money to chase page one of Google but the elephant in the room...

How much money are you willing to invest to insure your sales reps transform themselves to look credible online?

Whether you believe me or not, as a business owner; I firmly believe how your sales reps position themselves online is THE single biggest investment you can make to insure your success.

Your future clients may not even make it to your fancy, expensive and highly interactive website if they can't make it past your sales reps websites.

I ask you to put on the hat of the best prospect in your marketplace. The prospect every business owner covets. As honest as honest gets and one by one, spend a few minutes on each one of your sales reps LinkedIn profiles or for that matter even Google them.

Ask yourself this question...

What do I see on my sales reps LinkedIn profiles or within a Google search that makes me want to meet with them?

TIME TO REINVEST AND REALLOCATE

The two words my financial advisor shares with me is reinvest and reallocate. As a business owner, I challenge you to do the same. Reinvest in your sales reps. Reallocate dollars to help transform their websites. How can your organization transform inside a highly connected, digital business world when your sales reps haven't been taught to do the same.

A great book comes to mind I encourage all business owners to read. As a team check out Patrick Lencioni's, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

The role of a business leader is to be vulnerable, demand debate, force clarity, bring closure, confront difficult issues and focus on collective outcomes.

I encourage and challenge business owners... Please create and foster an environment to help your sales reps succeed in the modern business world. You owe it to the growth of your company.

I leave you with one last thought... Isn't your sales reps LinkedIn profiles part of the modern Yellow Pages? Encourage your future and current clients to let their fingers do their walking right to your organization. It may not happen unless you help transform your sales reps.

Analog mentality will stifle business growth inside a digital business world. When was the last time you used this...

Please visit the Social Sales Academy, if you would like my special report,"Overcoming The Top 5 Issues That Frustrate Business Owners"

If you would like some inspiration within your sales department I welcome the conversation or send me a message to llevine@socialsalesacademy.net

I get where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes.

Your comments, likes and shares are greatly appreciated.

In 2016, Larry was recognized by ENX Magazine, “The Difference Maker” as someone who is making a difference inside the copier channel. Larry is passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image

You can find more blog posts inside the Social Sales Academy website.

I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform, coach and inspire B2B Office Technology Sales Professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy

OMG, I finally arrived home about 20 minutes past mid-night from our quarterly sales dinner last night.  I'm thinking I finally fell asleep somewhere on the other side of 1AM. 

The week has finally caught up to me.  I felt drained when I woke up, and it took me the better part of an hour to get going.  I had two appointments scheduled for the day.  My first appointment was scheduled for 10:45, and sure enough the travel time from my house was about ninety minutes.

Myself and my IT Guru were scheduled to meet with the President, and the Operations Manager at a new site that they had just acquired.  Our job was to survey the new location and give recommendations and pricing for moving their network infrastructure to the new site.  In addition, we'll be making recommendations for a Firewall and BDR.  We ending up spending about an hour at the new site and then had to travel back to their existing site to complete an assessment of their existing network.  We finally finished up just short of 1PM. BTW, this account outsources $40k of full color labels every year!

My second appointment was with a net new account that is about 15 minutes from home (woohoo).  By the time I stopped for some lunch, I arrived at the appointment just in time for 3PM. 

My 3PM appointment was, well, it was crap.  Client had three existing A4 Samsung devices and their IT person was also the copier tech, or so he thought he was.  It was my best interest to end the meeting ASAP, because their would never be an opportunity here. 

On the way out, I checked in to another account that I have never called before.  I did find out that they had a fleet of ten Sharp multifunctional devices, received the name of the DM and the IT director.  Thus, that last stop of the day was a good one. No opps today, no sales, however, I've got more than 25% of the week left and next week should see some deals coming out of the pipeline and moving to the sold column.

I've written about this before and recently had an email exchange with a great P4P'er Jason over at Vision.  I shared with him my weekly schedule, hoping that it could help some of his reps.  Over the years, I learned that you need a dedicated ritual of events every week. 

If you'd like to see that, I posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums, go here to view. Thank goodness the weekend is here!

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $135K

-=Good Selling=-

Twas a special night at Ruth Chris Steak House, good people, good food, xclint beverages. Looking forward to Presidents Club.

The above paragraph was written will we were finishing up dinner and waiting on some excellent desserts.

Me, I was one of those fortunate enough to hit my quarter last month, and even though I had a two hour drive home, I thoroughly enjoyed the ambience, the food, the drinks and most of all I enjoyed being amongst my peers in a setting other than work.  With hard work, determination and a tiny bit of luck I hope to make it to the next quarterly dinner in January, however, I'm dreading the trip to Pennsyltucky in the dead of winter.

This AM was set aside for telemarketing for net new business, and to tell you the truth I got side tracked by a few emails and incoming calls along with developing a proposal for a client that needed it ASAP.  Before I knew it, the clock was at 11AM and I had a Noon appointment with an existing account that was a 45 minute drive time.  I was asked by my VEEP at our sales dinner why almost every appointment is an hour away?  Short and sweet,  it's a 20 minute drive to get to the start of my territory and I could drive another 45 minutes south on the Parkway to the southern most point.  Geo wise, I probably have the most square miles out of all the reps.

My noon appointment was with an existing client that had just purchased five units, and the IT director wanted some hands on with some advanced programming.  I like these kinds of appointments because you never know what may come up during the meeting/training/programming.  Alas, no other opportunity developed, but I was happy that I was able to accommodate their needs.

I had to be back at the office for a 3:30 webinar with one of our solutions providers that showed an awesome ROI excel spreadsheet for MPS and print rules. 

Dinner was scheduled for 6PM in King of Prussia, thus I had to leave the office by 4:30PM.  Not a great day by any stretch, but I was able to develop one opportunity for a color wide format scanner. I'm putting that op in for $6k.

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created = $6K

Total New Opportunities Created = $141K

-=Good Selling=- 

For the rest of the blog series, I'll be posting pictures from Previous President's Club trips.  That should only increase the desire to get there this time around!

You ever have one of those days where something happens in the AM, and then the rest of the day turns to crap?  Yup, happened to me this AM.

I arrived in the office just about 8:30AM after my minor fiasco. I had an email from a current client last night stating they wanted to move forward with an A4 color system.  Thus, I needed to create the paperwork, double check lease upgrade, double check my pricing and email those documents out.  Yes, I emailed the docs because the account was more than a 90 minute ride away and I already had three appointments scheduled for the day.

My first appointment was with a net new client that's in the market for a wide format system. I left at 10AM for the 11am appointment.  I arrived on time, however my client was delayed and did not arrive until noon.  I gave it my best pitch, client is looking to purchase or lease in 4-8 weeks. I shot a couple of trial closes to him and got nothing.  He had his sights set on also speaking with two other vendors.  I presented my value statement and stated I would follow up with a call when the quotes are ready to schedule an appointment to review.  This was the first opportunity of the day, and I'm putting it in at $12k or so.

I was finished by a little after 1PM, and then had to rush to make my 2PM appointment that was more than an hour away.  I finally arrived around 2:30pm and our meeting was centered around gathering their needs for a net new placement of a wide format.  I gave my recommendations based on the clients needs and made the same arrangement for a phone call to schedule another appointment to present order docs and close.  Opportunity two is another $12k

We finished up about 3:30 and then it was off to my third appointment that was scheduled for 4PM.  I arrived to the existing account about 4:30pm, this appointment was with a 501C association to discuss his budget for next year and what the estimated maintenance & supply cost would be for their existing A3 color MFP.   When I arrived I was floored to see that the client had remodeled their entire office, and added more employees.  They had a good year, banked some cash, and my client stated, "by the way, we're looking for another color system, would you happen to have anything used (pre-owned)?"

I stated, "funny you mention that, we're delivering a new color system tomorrow and their trade-in is available.  I'm not going to get into the details for the rest of the meeting.  We ended up about 5:30pm, and it was time to get home for dinner!  Oh yeah!  Third opportunity of the day, putting this one down for $5K.

As soon as I got in my car, I checked my cell and I had a message from an existing client that they had just won a large bid and they too needed something pre-owned and want to move on it ASAP.  There's number four!  I'm also listing this one at the $5K also.  Need to touch base with them in the AM.

Thus, what was a bad day early, turned into a super day for filling the pipeline!

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created = $34K

Total New Opportunities Created = $135K

-=Good Selling=-

One of the highlights of Graph Expo 2016 was the chance to see the Kip Color Wide Format Series in person. You see, I am a wide format geek through and through. At the beginning of my sales career, the first sales class my dealership sent me to way back in 1995 was for Ricoh Wide Format.

Ever since then I have loved the products and the AEC marketplace. We have come a long way since the Ricoh FW760 and FW830 units. Everything is now digital, multifunctional and now color is coming to the forefront of this part of the industry.

All the major players have color wide format products in their lineup. Some have more than one model others have only one model (Ricoh, I am thinking of you here).

Now to the subject of this blog.

Kip America has a full lineup of color wide format models and I was fortunate to see them in action.

I was not disappointed.

First off let’s look at a little information on the series.

There are technically 5 models but they are all the same unit only configured differently. All using the same consumables and basic parts.

The models are the 850-860-870-880/890. http://kipnews.kip.com/_Public...00SeriesBrochure.pdf

The 850 retails for $28k and is a 2 roll network printer, the 860 is a 2 roll multifunction unit and the 870 is a 4 roll network printer, both retail for $31K. And finally the 880 is a 4 roll multifunction unit with the KIP 720 CIS scanner/the 890 is a 4 roll multifunction unit with the KIP 2300 CCD production scanner, both retail for between $35-40k respectively.

Here are a few things I really liked about these systems.

1. Full speed output of 8D per minute for all models on both color and b/w images in all modes.  I watched the different models of this unit multiple times print an 80 page set of “D” size images that were a mix of both b/w and color CAD technical drawings and full color and b/w images at anywhere from %10 to %80 coverage and it did not slow down or pause when switching modes.
2. Cost per square ft. Kip claims that the cost per square ft. at a %10 coverage for a b/w drawing is $.017 sq. ft. and for a color drawing is $.029 sq. ft. These numbers are for parts and labor and do not include supply costs which would add an additional $.035-$.04 per sq. ft. at %10 coverage. Very good pricing indeed.
3. 12” Smart System K Touchscreen. I found this GUI to be one of the easiest to use interfaces that I have come across to date. Everything was right there on the front of the screen, functions were simple to access and I was able to operate the system with complete confidence in less than 10 minutes. Sure, it helps to have sold wide format systems for over 20 years but I believe anyone could learn how to use this in a very short time with minimal training involved. 
4. LED process vs. Inkjet. I am not saying that I do not like the ink process; however, I believe that there are certain advantages when comparing LED to ink technology.  First thing is paper. You can run a lot of different media. See the link. http://kipnews.kip.com/_Public...SeriesMediaGuide.pdf
5. You can run standard 20lb bond paper on the KIP when printing color or b/w with no worries. An inkjet system will not work well when utilizing 20lb bond paper for any applications requiring more than a small amount of coverage as you have the issue of bleed through of image. Most inkjet systems (HP-Canon-Ricoh) will recommend you run a heavier weight of bond or a coated inkjet paper for best quality and unfortunately this results in a higher consumable paper price. Also take into account the ability of toner vs. ink to resist water and UV light. I know not everyone takes their prints outside in the sun or rain but this can happen and ink does not make very good friends with either element, although to be fair, both units can print onto a waterproof paper which helps takes one element out of the equation.
6. Software functionality. The Kip comes standard with Kip Print Pro which is an extremely easy to use and powerful batch plotting, accounting and print management tools, very similar to PLP Plotworks/OpCenter but with much added scanning functionality. Kip’s competitors offer a software package but at an added premium cost of up to $6k retail (HP Pagewide Smartstream).

In conclusion, I would like to thank Justin Stowe (left below), Kip’s Regional Sales Manager, for his time and patience in answering all my questions and providing a great, in depth look at their suite of products.

I believe KIP has a great series here that would be perfect for a growing segment of the wide format marketplace where there is a need for quality color and b/w output at an industry leading low operational and supply cost per page. If this series isn’t already enough for you then just wait until 1Q of 2017 when we will hopefully see their High Speed color-b/w system at 16 “D” plus speeds.

John Anderson

A couple of thoughts before I start day "5" for everyone.  In reference to the opportunities that I've created.  These are opps that have been created since from the start of this blog, in addition these are opportunities that I think have a 50/50 shot of closing my the end of my year. 

When I started the this collection of blogs,  I had about $125K in the pipeline for the end of the year and nearly zero for this month.  The reason for the zero this month is because I emptied my 30 day pipeline in the last quarter.

Here's what I figure I need to hit my $200K;

• $600K in the pipeline till the end of the year
• Develop an opportunity a day
• Prospecting everyday
• 8-10 appointments per week
• Research the crap out of my CRM looking for potential opps

For me, it's not a 57 day horse race to the finish, it's more like the tortoise, have a plan, stick to the plan, work hard everyday and good things will happen.  As I've stated before, the hardier you work the luckier you get (Thanx to Jack C for telling me that years ago).

Between updating my CRM, sending emails, answering emails, researching my CRM, getting lease updates, scheduling one new appointment, one new demo, and completing about ten calls.  All of this pretty much took me up to about noon today.

I had a 1PM appointment that was a one hour drive time.  That appointment was with a long time C501 account.  They purchased PPDM software from me and asked if I could help with the install.  I had no problem with scheduling with them for a few reasons.  The first is because I had not seen them in a few years (did talk and email during that time period) and the second reason is that they have an older A3 90ppm black MFP and a A3 color laser printer.  They had purchased both units about 8 years ago.  Thus, I knew the time was now to pitch something new, but in order to make that work I needed to know more about current volume, workflow and costs.

The appointment lasted a little more than two hours, however I left with another opportunity developed that has a 50/50 shot for closing by the end of the month. I also developed a plan to help them with some fundraising in the near future.  My plan?  It's simple and two fold, for every copier I sell from now until the end of the year, I'm giving that client a book of 5 raffle tickets.  Each client will have the chance to win up to $10K.  I'm figuring this is nice incentive that can help me close deals, in addition I an raise some cash for the 501C, which could put me in a good position to close and order for a new 80ppm color device.

I finally got back on the road about 3:30PM, there was a few accounts that I wanted to stop in to see on the way home (since home was almost 90 minutes away). After a few wrong turns, I was able to stop at two net new prospects.  Nothing to report with those, but it's more about staying in front of them at this point in time.

I've got three appointments tomorrow, I need to start closing a few of these!

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created = $22K

Total New Opportunities Created = $101K

-=Good Selling=-

What a night it was last night.  The Giants vs the Packers or Trump vs Clinton, after watching 15 minutes of the Giant vs the Packers I switched to Trump vs Clinton.  I tell you, Trump vs Clinton was a whole heck of a lot more entertaining than the Giants game!

Arrggg, Monday mornings, I hate em, you hate em, we all hate them.  I think I finally feel asleep some where around mid-night, thus I had a hard time getting this old bag o bones moving in the  AM.

I had a 9AM appointment with an existing account that had a month left on their lease. The have a 25PPM MFP with color scan, and after 15 minutes or so we agreed that the proposal for the new system should include all of the features on the last system.  No need for color or any solutions.  I did throw in a paper tray lock in order to move the process along. Should have an answer on this upgrade in a week or so, since that is the next time the board meets.

I was back at the office around 11AM and had many issues to clean up, for starters I messed up an order from last month. Well, the client thinks I did, me thinks the client somehow had a memory lapse. I took care of it asap, thus I could move on to some prospecting.

Between the emails, answering the phone, I only had enough time to log about 12 calls, however I was able to schedule two appointments for next (since this week is booked) week.  In addition I was able to garner three additional opportunities. First opp was for a small A4 mon, the second was a wide format color and A3 color MFP, the last opp was from my first appointment. 

I spent a lot of developing the numbers for the second opp wit the color wide format and the A3 color device.  This is for an existing account and the last time I presented and ROI spreadsheet, the client asked, "why would I not do this?".

Thus, I put a few hours into laying out the clients existing costs vs proposed costs.  Hoping when we meet next week, we' have the same outcome from a few years ago.

Tomorrow morning is dedicated to more phone prospecting in the AM. I have client visit at 1PM about and hour away.  After that, I plan on doing some strategic cold calls for net new.

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created = $27K

Total New Opportunities Created = $79K

-=Good Selling=

Is “Tired of Trying” an Excuse Not to Innovate?

I was talking with a friend the other day and realized just how infectious complacency is within organizations that stifle ideas and squash team members’ enthusiasms. These organizations have pushed their best asset -- their people -- into what I call the “Tired of Trying Zone.”

It seems anymore that all organization large or small believe they are innovative, cutting edge or some other tired phrase. The reality is innovative organizations are not the norm, and most organization won’t get out of their own way. The very essence of the term “innovative organization” means its people are innovative. So why is it that organizations spend more time deciding how not to do something than doing something? When you look at technology-born organizations, such as Facebook, Google or Netflix, the companies born after the 1990s, you see a stark difference in how the work force feels toward innovative thinking. Here’s why

“The organizations born from technology realize their very existence was created by innovation, and that someone else can at the speed of light innovate them out of business. “

Frankly it’s disturbing to see great people so disgusted with their organization’s attitude toward innovations they simply stop trying. Some reading this will say it’s their own fault; they should quite go somewhere and be appreciated. I must admit I think that way most of the time, as well. However, sometimes current life circumstances make that decision much more complicated for some.

So let’s blame the leadership, After all, if these leaders instead searched for better ways, they would welcome new ideas instead of slamming the door. They would force their lower-level managers to explore better ways, not simply manage older ways. Some organizations are so focused on “the way it is,” because they are only compensated on “the way it is.” What if organizations actually compensated their people to not only manage “what it is,” but also imagine what it could be?

I believe it’s time for the imagination bonus plan. Come on, leaders. Use your imagination and develop a program that rewards the team to think of ways to innovate. Then those great people won’t utter that dreadful commentary, “We’ll never do that,” or “We take forever to do something different,” or “I’m not going to say anything; it’s useless.” 

In today’s changing world, organizations must invest the time and resources in addressing the way it’s going to be. The RD departs of the past move too slowly and usually carry the weight of outdated policies. It’s time that legacy organizations innovate their policies and their attitudes about how they look for and bring back the future - allowing them to prosper even more today.

Everyone that works in the company should also be members of the R&D department. The amount of information available today is staggering. Today’s leaders must figure out how to manage an overload of ideas from their teams, instead of following outdated management practices that teach teams not to care.

In closing; to leaders who believe their team cares about the company’s future more than a pay check, you’re delusional. That is, unless you’re at leader who actually pays the team to look to the future. If you’re one of those organizations, kudos to you.

“Compliments are the nourishment for a repeating of what was complimented.”

R.J. Stasieczko    

Holy crap, I'm reading through some of the press releases from ten years ago and I noticed that HP released the press release for the Edgeline.  Oh, how it brought back the fond memories of many naysayers predicting doom and gloom for the copier channel!  That Is here.

Re: hp news!

What a night it was at The Cannata Awards Dinner!  I found my-self calling it a night early because I had two appointments on Friday.  My first stop was at a new account in Princeton, thus I had to l leave two hours available to fight the New Jersey traffic.  Left the Westminster Hotel at 8AM, and arrived at my net new prospect just a few minutes before 10AM.  It's always good to be on time.

My first appointment with this prospect was back in late May of this year.  This net new and new business was in the need for a color multifunctional device.  I only knew about the new business bit when we first met. The gatekeeper was tasked with finding the right vendors, receive pricing and then make recommendations to the CEO.  In early June, I was able to secure and approval with out a PG (PM me for details can't post them here), and posted this prospect as an opportunity to close in June.  June came and past and nothing, I later found out that the prospect was going to hold off some since they did not have all of the employee's hired and thought the system was not needed at this time.  Each month I would call and follow up, then just a week ago the gatekeeper reached out to me to say that they were ready to order and wanted to meet to review the pricing.

Our meeting went well, the CEO was not there to sign, thus I left the paperwork and stated I could return later in the day to pick that paperwork up. I stated I would call after my last appointment. 

That meeting took almost and hour, and since I my next appointment was at 3PM, I thought it would be best to head back to the office to log a few more calls.  The ride back was about an hour, that put me at noon.  I took my entire hour for lunch and resumed catching up on a few phone calls and answering a few email.  Before I new it, the time was 2:15 and it was time to leave for my next call with an existing account that has about 5 months of payments on a 36 month lease. 

My first appointment for this account was about three weeks ago.  Our client was having some pain with the annual color pages being at almost 250,000 and they were expecting another increase of 10-20% in the next calendar year.  When a client already has two 80 ppm color devices, it drives the question of where do you go from here? I had a few ideas, one was to take and existing 80 ppm color device and move that to black only, and drive all of the color pages to either a light production color or a production system.  After 30 minutes of posing additional questions about workflow, compliance issues, and knowledge of their existing marketing people, I realized that my initial plan would not fly.

In additional there were no other options. I thought it would be best to "let the ball travel", because there were only five payments left on the lease and I knew that the new MP C8003's are just on the horizon.  Both the client and I agreed that we would meet again in 30 days to review color volume, review features and specs of MP C8003 as long as the system was released.  I also made it clear that we are approaching our end of year and I would we could both benefit of upgrading the current lease before the end of this year.  Thus, an opportunity was created for $40k that would close before the end of this year.

By the time I walked out it was 4PM and I turned my attention the meeting  I had this AM.  I accessed my phone as I arrived to my call and there was an email from that net new prospect that started with, "I'm sorry".  Geesh, WTF I thought!  I finished reading the email to find out that my gatekeeper also had to run the order past here CFO.  My gatekeeper explained that she had met a copier rep in the last week, and was also going to get a price from them.  Easy come, easy go, right?  I sent my gatekeeper stating thank you and also stated that we are not going to be the cheapest price and you can't get the lowest price and have excellent support.  I sent that email a little after 4PM, and had no response till the end of the day.  Figure I will attack this on Monday AM.  I had decent GP, now I gotta rack my brain for some ideas for Monday.

Earlier in the day, I thought this was a sure thing, and now it's not. I'm hoping I can get this back to a sure thing Monday AM.

Amount Sold Today = 0

Total Revenue to Date = $2K

New Opportunities Created = $40K

Total New Opportunities Created = $52K

-=Good Selling=-